Final decision due in village green status dispute

The fate of a piece of land is finally due to be decided after previous deferrals and residents’ long-fought battle to have it named a village green.

Southwick Court Fields near Trowbridge has been the subject of numerous planning meetings in a “torturous” process to protect the land after it was marked for 180 new homes.

In a rapid turnaround since the last deferral, the application is due back before Wiltshire Council's planning committee on Wednesday.

This comes after developer Waddeton Park’s legal team expressed concern over the “continuing and unnecessary” delays in the council making “a final decision”.

The site is located on the southern edge of Trowbridge, where Waddeton Park and Savills won their appeal against the council’s refusal for 180 new homes on the site, the Local Democracy Reporting Service has said.

Residents previously gathered more than 150 petition signatures to fight the development plans and requested Wiltshire Council register the site as a village green.

Wiltshire Council resolved to appoint an independent inspector to carry out a non-statutory public inquiry, the results of which were presented to councillors at the Western Area Planning Committee meeting on 10 April.

The report advised councillors to reject the village green application on the grounds that not enough “lawful sports and pastimes” occur on the lower section of the land in question.

However, a report presented to the planning committee on Wednesday suggested the decision to declare the original village green application invalid was flawed.

At a meeting, councillor David Vigar claimed it was a mistake that had “massive consequences for the residents of Trowbridge Grove”.

He requested the final vote be deferred until January to ask for a further report that examined the option of processing the application “as it should have been processed originally”.

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